Our local Chengdu team suggested these Jianshui Wenzhou-style noodles because like many fresh Sichuan noodles—and unlike most Chinese dried wheat noodles—they include jianshui/kansui, an alkaline lye water, which lends them body and bounce (as well as a yellow color).

These noodles are mid-weight and round, as preferred in Sichuan, and the alkaline in these, as in ramen, is sodium carbonate. They are equally at home as soup noodles, dry noodles or cold noodles. 

Yunnan province is renowned for its rice noodles, so we have gone straight to the source for these medium-thick, round noodles made simply of rice flour and water. As a general rule, Yunnan and the rest of southern China opt for fresh rice noodles when they can, with the caveat that they must be made by the factory and consumed by the eater within the same 24 hours. Otherwise, diners opt for dried noodles like these.

They are called guoqiao mixian, or Crossing the Bridge Noodles, after the famous Yunnan dish, but they are also of the type used in most all Yunnan mixian soups and salads. The Nanhuyuan company makes nothing but fresh and dried rice noodles, honing its expertise over the decades. 

We asked our Sichuan team to try out various brands of dried wide rice noodles sourced directly from Guangdong to find one that could stand in for fresh noodles. Of course fresh is better, but these dried noodles are miles better and easier to work with than fresh noodles that have been refrigerated.

These semi-wide, flat noodles, called ho fun (or he fen in Mandarin), are made in Shaoguan, a city in northern Guangdong, bordering Hunan. Shiny and semi-transparent, they are made only of rice flour and water according to local traditions and methods then formed by hand into bundles weighing 65-75 grams, or 2-2.5 ounces. This is a giant, 1 kilogram bag! 

Because we almost sold out of the trial run of these noodles as soon as we put them on the site, they are available now only as part of the Regional Chinese Noodle Collection (see below). We have already ordered more!